Having Successful Meetings

Brainstorming Brainstorming meetings are used to, surprise — brainstorm. These meetings are usually unstructured and allow for the participants to say what is on their mind. The goal is to come up with new and original ideas or solutions. Bring your imagination and innovation to this kind of meeting.

Decision-making Decision-making meetings are used to help speed up the decision-making process. In today's business environment, things just seem to move faster and faster. As the speed of business increases, the speed at which decisions must be made must also increase.

Getting key decision makers in the same room to hammer out the issues and come up with a course of action is usually a very efficient way to reach rapid and effective decisions.

planning for the meeting

Before any meeting, try to plan as thoroughly as possible. The last thing you want is to be surprised at the meeting. Whether you are in charge of the meeting or simply attending, you should take the following matters into account:

Goal(s) of the meeting: what do you want to achieve in this meeting?

Attendees: who will be attending the meeting and why are they attending?

Agenda: what is to be discussed and/or decided during the meeting?

Documentation: what documents and information must you bring to the meeting?

Location: where will the meeting be held? Location is often a clue as to the atmosphere of a meeting. If a meeting is in a restaurant, after hours, it will inevitably be less formal than a boardroom meeting.

why meetings fail

Perhaps the single biggest reason for failed meetings is lack of participation. If people don't participate (even if only by being active listeners), then the meeting is doomed to fail. Here are some other common reasons why meetings fail; try not to fall in the trap!

Unnecessary meeting: if the meeting is not necessary, then people will feel as though their time is being wasted and will not participate or pay much attention.

Unclear purpose: if the purpose of the meeting is not clear, participants cannot prepare properly and consequently, the meeting is not likely to bear fruit.

Poorly prepared meeting: if the agenda is not clearly defined, then the meeting will likely take more time to achieve less objectives than with a proper plan.

Wrong people: if the wrong people are at the meeting, chances are you won't get results. If you're expecting to meet with a vice president and his third assistant shows up, you won't be getting answers nearly as quickly.

Location: the meeting environment is very important. You wouldn't have a dinner meeting with a company president at Burger King, would you?

This article is meant as a quick introduction to business meetings. The main thing you should remember in order for your meetings to be successful is to always be well-prepared and don't be afraid to participate.